Frankie Essex wanted to take her own life like her mum after battling with depression.

The former TOWIE star lost her mother when she was 13 and in the past year has had suicidal thoughts herself, admitting she used to drink until she passed out and stuff herself with food to make herself feel better.

Speaking to Now Magazine , she said: "I'd lost all my confidence. I had a really sh** year, probably the worst year I've ever had, and I was really down. I lived with my boyfriend John [Lyons] and I had to move out."

"I did think about wanting to die," she went on. "I'm on a six-week waiting list to see a counsellor and in the meantime I'm on anti-depressants. If it wasn't for Chloe [Sims, her cousin], I don't know where I'd be today."

The 28-year-old beauty moved in with Chloe for a month when she split from John last year, but her eating and boozing was still out of control and she piled on weight and didn't realise at first.

"When I'm unhappy it always takes me back to being the 13-year-old girl who lost her mum," she says.

She was eating fry-ups all day, going out for slap up meals and munching on four or five biscuits with every cup of tea.

Frankie flaunts her curvaceous shape (Image: MATRIXPICTURES.CO.UK)

When Frankie went to put a jumper on some months ago she thought it had shrunk until she realised her figure had ballooned and she needed to cut back and start exercising more.

Joey Essex's sister also revealed she hasn't told a lot of her friends the problems she's been faced with and her comments may come as a shock.

She added that she's now ready to sort herself out and wanted to prove to herself she can be honest with everyone and make the changes needed to go back to being happy again.